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Posted: Feb. 21, 2024
From 2020-mid 2023, I was almost exclusively in e-learning. That meant bounces back and forth from software to software, and also means that I now have an acute understanding of how education programs work (and where they fall short.) It's honestly surprising how shit some of this software is, so let's just go ahead and dive in to the issues.
It's honestly amazing how disorganized school software can be. Softwares like D2L had little to no organization, usually leading to stacks of assignments and resources one right after another. This issue is handled a lot better with software such as Schoology, where the assignments can be sorted by folders (although some teachers don't take advantage of this, leading to more stacks of assignments.) Another major issue is that classes oftentimes are not separated from clubs and extracurricular groups, making it more difficult to get to the classes you need.
The Solution: Add sorting folders to separate units and concepts (and make their use required for teachers), as well as having a separate section to display assignments. Separate classes from extracurricular groups and clubs for more easy navigation.
Another astounding issue is the lack of uniformity across UIs. While this isn't as major of an issue with D2L, Schoology has this abundantly. The main resource and forum UI is significantly different from the quiz UI, wherein the main interface is more like an early 2010s MySpace or Facebook, and the quiz UI is like — well — D2L. It honestly feels like a blatant rip-off, and is also incredibly jarring. Also, since Schoology has significantly more software integration with apps such as CodeHS and Nat Geo, there's a ton more UIs to conflict with, which is annoying to say the least.
The Solution: Either update the UI to match modern education softwares such as D2L/Nat Geo/CodeHS, or downgrade the mismatched UIs to combine with your own.
This one falls on the teachers just as much as the software. A lot of the time, the assignments in education apps don't have clear instructions (or in many cases, instructions at all). It can make it very difficult for students to decipher what they actually need to do, and can in turn cause grades to hurt.
The Solution: Make it optional for schools to require instructions on assignments, and give teachers the option of attaching a rubric for students to follow.
These are just a few of the weird little issues that annoy me with e-learning software. If any of you have further complaints, pleae email me and I can cover them in a follow-up post later on.
Posted: Feb. 19, 2024
The short - it's fun. The long - I need somewhere to post funny stuff I think of without the terror of showing my face on social media or doing microblogs on websites like Facebook. Being able to express myself more freely, with both short and long posts, as well as being able to control the appearance of my posts seems very enticing, which is why i've chosen to do this. For example, I could add an entire sign-off at the bottom of this, or I could cut it off mid sente
